The Chinese city of Suzhou has caused a stir by publicly denouncing its citizens. The city posted online covert photos of seven people who had taken to the streets dressed in pajamas. In addition, the city released names, identity cards, and other personal information, as the BBC reported today.
The city chalked up „uncivilized behavior“ to the people and pointed out that one participates in a national competition for the „most civilized city“. But the action caused harsh criticism online. The authorities apologized and promised to pixelate such photos in the future. One wants to respect the „privacy“ of the population.
Omnipresent surveillance
China has long developed into a surveillance state. Hundreds of millions of surveillance cameras have been installed in recent years. These are partly linked to artificial intelligence (AI), which enables the filmed people to be identified and their behavior to be analyzed.
In combination with this, China has been driving the social credit system for years – a huge, point-based rating system that aims to reward positive behavior and punish negative behavior.
Rewards could include faster processing of government applications and easier lending. In contrast, negative points can jeopardize careers and education, hinder access to services and make it difficult to buy train and plane tickets. The system has been tested since 2018 and is expected to come into force for all 1.4 billion Chinese this year.
